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Latest news in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Daily roundup of local media from three South Caucasus countries, opinions, photo, video.
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The Daily Beat: 3 October
Alongside several MEPs from various European political parties, the European People’s Party also reacted to the parliamentary elections in Georgia, saying “The EPP stands with the Georgian people in their fight to choose freely and without any intimidation their place among the democratic nations of Europe. All irregularities committed by government authorities during the latest elections must be swiftly investigated.” More on international reactions to the election results can be found here.
Edison Research issued a statement on the ruling Georgian Dream party’s 54 percent victory in the October 26 elections, saying that “the 13-point difference between Edison’s estimate and the official result of 54% for Georgian Dream cannot be explained by normal variation alone and suggests local-level manipulation of the vote.” The company further notes that it has conducted exit polls in Georgia since 2012 and that all of its previous polls have accurately supported the official results.
The Central Election Commission confirms granting accreditation to the Russian government propagandist Alexander Malkevich, further asserting that the accreditation was granted in full compliance with electoral legislation. The CEC also noted that it “has no access to the legal status of this or that person, and this is not within the scope of its activity.” On November 1, the pro-opposition TV station Pirveli aired a report saying that Malkevich had not only visited Georgia on election day but had also received accreditation from the CEC.
The ruling party’s executive secretary and parliamentary majority Leader Mamuka Mdinaradze claims that the opposition parties stole Georgian Dream’s votes in the elections and calls on the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the alleged crimes. He claimed to have “concrete facts about how the representatives of the National Movement cluster stole the votes of the Georgian Dream,” further adding that 81 concrete facts of vote-stealing would be presented to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Natia Mezvrishvili from the “Gakharia for Georgia” party says that the CEC is deleting the information on the vote-counting machines and falsifying the databases on the CEC’s servers. Therefore, the party decided to appeal to the court with the request to protect this information everywhere and to force the CEC to comply with the party’s demands to publish the information. More on election-related developments can be found in our 2024 Election Live Blog.
Thousands of workers in Zestaphoni and Chiatura, two western Georgian towns, were left in uncertainty after Georgian Manganese, a major exporter of ferroalloys, told them it would halt production for four months from November 1. Citing a drop in ferroalloy prices on the world market and permanent protests at the Chiatura mines, the company told workers a few days after the parliamentary vote that it would keep them on 60% of pay plus insurance.
The European Audiovisual Observatory published an analysis – “Media pluralism in selected Black Sea countries: the influence of European standards,” suggesting that “once popular, de-oligarchisation is no longer at the top of the political agenda in the Black Sea region for various reasons, but primarily because the European institutions saw the way in which legal instruments were shaped to combat it as a threat to democracy.” The findings of the publication also indicate that countries such as Georgia and Turkey perceive foreign influence differently rather than Ukraine and Moldova.
The Tbilisi City Court extended the extradition detention of the Azerbaijani journalist, Afgan Sadigov, who was arrested in Tbilisi this summer, by three months. Judge Arsen Kalatozishvili announced the decision on November 1. Afgan Sadigov, editor-in-chief of Azel.tv, who is known to be critical of the Azerbaijani authorities, remains in custody and continues to await his extradition sentence. The U.S. and international watchdogs have urged the Georgian government against Sadigov’s extradition.
